


So I Can Fix Your Hand, I'll Be Your Handyman

by IsabelArmuelles



Category: NCT (Band), WAYV
Genre: Background Relationships, Fluff, Kun is the biggest sweetheart, M/M, Mentions of alcohol, Strangers to Lovers, Suh Youngho | Johnny is Whipped, Yutae as Johnny’s emotional support, and a bit of reckless drinking, handyman Kun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-08-27
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:01:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26059948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IsabelArmuelles/pseuds/IsabelArmuelles
Summary: Soft brown eyes stare right back at him, and Johnny realizes he hasn't said shit since he opened the door."Uh-""I'm here to fix the A/C? You're Jamie, I assume." The guy says, and Johnny feels like he's about to fall backward at how much the soft, melodious voice takes him by surprise.Or; the one where Johnny dislikes his landlady but is very much crushing on her step-son, the handyman.
Relationships: Suh Youngho | Johnny/Qian Kun
Comments: 17
Kudos: 200
Collections: Johnkun Fic Fest Round 1 (2020)





	So I Can Fix Your Hand, I'll Be Your Handyman

**Author's Note:**

> #H040 for JKFF
> 
> Prompt: au in which Johnny has been bothering his landlady to fix his broken A/C for literally weeks but when she finally says she'll send someone to fix it he doesn't expect to find her son Kun on his doorstep. after that initial encounter, Johnny keeps finding things that need repairing around the apartment as an excuse to get Kun to come fix it.

Johnny’s brain is melting like the homemade popsicles his mom used to make for him and his cousins during the summer, the ones that tasted like glory and heaven after a whole day of playing on the front yard and running around with the neighborhood kids under the sun, and were made out of orange juice with added-on Kool-Aid. He’s sure if he moves his head around too fast, he can almost hear the sloshing inside his head, and if he tilts it, a melted popsicle will come out from his ear.

His apartment clearly wasn’t built to handle this type of heatwave, thick walls made out of blocks and concrete instead of polystyrene and plasterboards, like the more modern and bougie apartment buildings in the area. The old design had caught Johnny’s attention back when he was apartment hunting a few years ago, but what completely sold the place to him was the extremely low rent and spacious flats, along with how close the building was to the metro station.

So much for cheap rent. His only source of ventilation had broken down almost two weeks ago, the external part of the central air conditioner that kept his entire apartment cool whirring to a halt, followed by a string of mini rumbles that nearly made Johnny’s heart fall to his ass in fear that the whole thing was about to explode in the dead of night. The piece of metal is probably as old as the building, but it used to do the trick and kept his flat cool enough, which Johnny now realizes he had taken for granted.

He’s tried calling his landlady at least twice a day ever since the A/C broke, but much to no avail. The lady is either set on ignoring him or is probably on another of her nearly month-long cruise trips, the ones she warned him about when he first had moved in. He feels a little jealous if that’s the case. A cruise ship sounds way better than the sauna that is his home.

At one point, he even tries to fix the damn thing by himself. He naively thinks, ‘how hard can it be?’, and then proceeds to watch three hours worth of YouTube videos, all of which basically tell him to find a professional if the job gets too hard or if he’s handling an older type of A/C. He chucks all warnings out the window, and arms himself with the tools he’s used in assembling most of his IKEA furniture.

His handyman stunt is soon shut down by an unphased Taeyong, who waltzes into his apartment with two bags of Italian takeout and stops dead in his tracks when his eyes fall on Johnny, half of his body hanging out the window and a screwdriver held tightly in one hand.

“What are you doing?” Taeyong’s voice comes out soft, like the calm before the storm. Johnny straightens up as much as he can and swings his leg back into the apartment, smiling sheepishly and hiding the screwdriver behind his back. Taeyong doesn’t even spare him a glance as he unpacks the food onto the kitchen counter. “Johnny.”

“Nothing. Just enjoying the view.” He answers dumbly, cringing at his own words. That’s the best he can come up with? Really?

Taeyong obviously doesn’t buy it, but at least he doesn’t nag Johnny about it. He opens the food containers and gets some plates, setting the table while Johnny sneaks to the bathroom to wash his hands, leaving the tools on the floor and the window open for air circulation.

They eat in relative silence, but Johnny is grateful for the company, especially since he knows Taeyong has always been one to drop by every once in a while to pamper his friends and see what they’re up to. Taeyong doesn’t like talking with his mouth full, so Johnny has a small heads up of knowing what’s coming next when Taeyong swallows and takes his time to wash down the food with some water, getting ready to speak.

“So,” he starts, taking the napkin between his fingers and playing with the folded corner. “Mind sharing what you were trying to do earlier?”

Johnny feels like he’s about to get scolded by his mom. “I was… trying to fix something.”

Taeyong nods. “Something.”

“Yeah.”

A beat of silence. “What were you trying to fix, Johnny?”

He realizes there’s no need to hide it, not when Taeyong is giving him The Look, the one he uses on anyone who is clearly bullshitting him. He slumps in his chair and sighs. “My central A/C broke and I’ve been calling my landlady for the past two weeks but she hasn’t answered even once.”

A frown settles on Taeyong’s pretty features. Johnny can see a hint of red sauce on the corner of his lip. “Two weeks?”

“Yeah. I think she’s on another cruise. So I thought I could fix the thing by myself.”

Taeyong takes his fork in his hand but doesn’t move to take another bite into his mouth. “And you couldn’t call an actual handyman?”

Johnny pouts at the small jab directed towards his handyman skills. He might not be like the kids’ show Handy Manny, with all his cool tools that did the work for him, but at least he’s good at patching things up with duct tape and a few screws. “They’re too expensive and I have to pay for both their services and whatever new pieces they need to fix the A/C. It’s either get the landlady to answer or fix it myself.”

After a few seconds, Taeyong hums at the explanation. “We’re calling the landlady again.” He decides.

“What?” Johnny stares at his friend like he just grew another head. “I told you she’s not answering!” His claim goes ignored as Taeyong gets up from the small dining table and walks over to the fridge, where he knows Johnny keeps a list with important information and phone numbers stuck with a magnet. He takes his phone out of his pocket and dials the number, then holding it to his ear and turning to look at Johnny.

It doesn’t even go past the second ring when the phone is answered. Johnny pouts. Lucky bastard.

“Hello, is this…” Taeyong prompts, and Johnny mouths ‘Mrs. Qian’ to him as he walks closer to listen to the conversation. “Is this Mrs. Qian?” He asks, receiving a small greeting and confirmation before continuing. “Yes, this is Johnny from apartment 3B... No, not Jamie, Johnny... Yes, ma’am, I’m pretty sure I know my own name.”

“Oh my god,” Johnny whispers.

“Yes, I’ve been trying to reach you for some time now. It is concerning the air conditioning unit. It broke down and I need someone to fix it.” Taeyong explains with a neutral voice, but Johnny can tell he’s slowly getting fed up with the landlady’s dismissiveness. “No, I didn’t break it. The machine is old and it was here way before I moved in… No, ma’am, I didn’t kick it to see if it would work again, I won’t destroy your property.” Taeyong gives a pointed look at Johnny after he says that. Johnny smiles and lets out an awkward laugh.

Taeyong's stance means business, hip cocked to the side as he holds the phone to his ear, with his other arm crossed over his chest and his head held high. Johnny is well aware this man is an unstoppable force, so he silently hopes Mrs. Qian doesn't become the unmovable object in his way. "As I said, I need someone to fix the air conditioner, the sooner the better… No, I won't just 'buy a portable fan'." He rather aggressively does air quotes with his fingers before huffing and crossing his arm over his chest once more. "The use of the A/C and the electricity bill is covered by my rent payments, as well as the maintenance of it, I'm sure."

Johnny's eyes widen. Is it? He doesn't even remember half of the things that were in the contract he signed, let alone a part of it saying what exactly his money is for. All he knows is that he is up to date with his payments. How could Taeyong possibly know all that?

"Again, It's Johnny. And yes, I am well aware you are currently not in the country… No, I do not wish to make you come here and make you fix it yourself, no need to be rude." Taeyong rolls his eyes so harshly Johnny fears they will pop from their sockets and roll onto the floor like two marbles, but he soon regains his composure and begins talking in a sickeningly sweet voice. "Ma'am, I need a handyman. My A/C is broken, and as far as I know, my payments cover it. It’s your duty to supply someone that can fix it, otherwise, you wouldn’t be fulfilling your duties as landlady and I could easily sue you.”

Johnny’s eyes are wide as plates. Can he do that? Is he allowed to threaten Mrs. Qian and take her to court over something as dumb as a broken air conditioning unit? Taeyong seems to know what he’s doing, and if he doesn’t, he sure as hell is really good at pretending so.

There’s a moment of silence from Taeyong’s side, where Mrs. Qian seems to ramble about something, the sound muffled thanks to the phone’s speakers being pressed to Taeyong’s ear. His face remains neutral, but he nods every now and then, and Johnny feels himself grow jittery with anticipation. A low hum leaves Taeyong’s throat. “Very well. Thank you. Yes. Yes, you too. Goodbye now.”

Taeyong closes the call, satisfied smile taking over his features, close to the Cheshire Cat’s massive grin. Johnny blinks up at him, a newfound adoration coursing through him. “So?”

“Your landlady is insufferable and I have beef with her.” He holds the smile on his face, and Johnny has half a mind to take a step backward. Passive-aggressive Taeyong is a terrifying sight to behold.

Johnny gives him an expectant look. “And…” He urges on, making a hand motion for Taeyong to continue explaining what the landlady said.

“You’re getting your A/C fixed tomorrow, early in the morning.” Taeyong finishes, sending a little wink at Johnny and pocketing his phone, but not without saving the phone number as ‘Johnny’s Evil Landlady’, no doubt for future use, in case Johnny needs help once more.

“My savior!” The loud yell takes Taeyong by surprise, making him jump in his place, but Johnny is too busy hugging him and trying to kiss his cheeks to tease him for being so easily startled. Johnny can easily carry his friend,- tall build and strong arms really do come in handy when you want to smother someone with affection,- and he picks Taeyong up before wriggling him around like a rag doll.

Clearly being used to this kind of behavior from Johnny, Taeyong lets him show his gratitude and doesn’t push his sloppy cheek kisses away, and instead laughs at Johnny’s variations of “thank you so much” and “what would I do without you?” that end up in baby talk and more kisses.

“Okay, that’s enough you big baby.” He laughs, gently pushing Johnny away. Johnny takes the hint and finally sets him down, but keeps his arms around Taeyong, just because his friend is soft and really nice to hug. “She got a little angry at me but tried to play it off as indifference, so if the handyman she sends here fucks up your A/C, that’s on her. Just call me and I’ll give her hell.”

“You’re amazing,” Johnny says in awe, before giving another sloppy smooch to Taeyong’s cheek. The other just laughs at his antics.

Finishing their dinner feels a lot lighter, at least for Johnny, since he doesn’t have to worry about living inside a sauna for much longer. Taeyong tells him about a guy he’s been seeing lately, a bartender with early 2000’s punk rocker vibes that took him out to a gamer café and paid for the three hours of computer use and snacks, cracking jokes and making him laugh during the whole date. The spark in Taeyong's eyes when he talks about the guy has Johnny approving him immediately, so he asks Taeyong to let him meet the guy first out of all their friends, just to confirm that he's good for his Landlady-fighting best friend.

Taeyong agrees, mostly because he knows Johnny would get whiny about not being the first to meet him. They talk a bit more and tease each other as they pick up the table and throw away the empty food containers, with Taeyong poking fun at Mrs. Qian and her terrible attitude. He ends up leaving far too soon for Johnny's liking, reminding him about the handyman coming over early in the morning as he puts his shoes back on and walks out the door.

Johnny, knowing himself, sets up four alarms, all of them with a five-minute interval starting at seven in the morning so he is forced to wake up one way or another. He showers and gets ready for bed, cracking a window open, just so he can get a little more air circulation in his room and get the night breeze to cool him off. It takes him longer than expected, but he ends up getting knocked out sometime past midnight, shirtless and in a pool of his own sweat. 

~~~~~~~

Loud knocking jolts Johnny awake, and he has to take a second for his eyes to adjust to the light coming from his open window. It's bright, but not bright enough to hurt or make him squeeze his eyes shut, so he just lays in bed for a couple of seconds, a bit disoriented, until the knocking comes back a little louder.

Did one of his neighbors misplace something, or did their cat get lost again? Johnny is sure he hadn't seen any trace of a cat in his apartment the day before so it couldn't have gotten in through the main door, but then again, he had every single window of his apartment open, and cats could easily climb, especially with the way this old building is built.

The knocks start up again, this time louder and more insistent. Johnny groans as he rolls over in bed, the bedsheets sticking all grossly to his back and peeling off as he stands up and away from the bed, grimacing at how gross the sweat spot on his bed is. He rolls his head around to stretch a little as he walks out of his room, annoyed at all the noise and persistent knocking at ass o'clock in the morning.

His back cracks obscenely loud as he gets closer to the door, and he scratches his head before running his hand through his hair and immediately getting grossed out at the greasy and sweaty strands. He doesn't even bother to check through the peephole, since his sleepy muddled brain is not alert enough to comprehend whatever might be on the other side of the peephole. Right as he grabs his keys to unlock the door, a single loud knock startles him, making him jump and nearly drop his keys.

"Oh my god, stop that already, I'm trying to open the door." He calls out while he fumbles with his keys, trying to get the right one. His voice comes out all gross and groggy, but at least the knocking stops, and Johnny's brain can finally focus on the task at hand. He gets the key in the lock and quickly swings the door open one hand coming up to rub at one of his eyes as he starts talking. "Sobin I haven't seen your cat, I swear, just ask Mrs. Moon if she fed it recently-"

"Uhm."

Johnny freezes at the voice.

That is _not_ his neighbor Sobin.

Johnny slowly lowers his hand from his eye and looks at the person in front of him. The guy has honey-blond hair, with slight roots showing, and a really cute nose and- oh, is that a mole under his eyebrow? That's cute, Johnny thinks moles are really pretty. Along with the absolutely stunning face comes a pair of full pink lips, upper lip a few shades darker than the lower one, and what Johnny thinks is the nicest jawline he has ever seen in all his 25 years of life, and that's saying a lot since he's best friends with Lee Taeyong of all people. Soft brown eyes stare right back at him, and Johnny realizes he hasn't said shit since he opened the door.

"Uh-" 

"I'm here to fix the A/C? You're Jamie, I assume." The guy says, and Johnny feels like he's about to fall backward at how much the soft, melodious voice takes him by surprise. He stays still, though, mainly because there's something wrong with the guy's statement.

"Uh, it's Johnny, actually."

The guy nods, looking apologetic. "Sorry then. She never gets her tenants' names right, I kinda expected it."

Johnny is lost. "I'm sorry, who?"

The guy looks a little taken aback by the question, looking at Johnny like it's something extremely obvious. "The… The landlady?"

Ah.

"Oh fuck, right. She never got my name right." He says, remembering the very annoyed Taeyong from the previous night that kept on correcting the lady over and over again. Johnny extends a hand for a handshake. "I'm Johnny Suh."

The guy nods, switching the toolbox he's holding,- that Johnny failed to notice,- to his other hand so he can shake Johnny's hand. He smiles. "Qian Kun."

Johnny blinks at that, letting go of Kun's hand. "Q-Qian…?"

Kun looks at him oddly. "Uhm… yeah?"

Johnny decides that whatever conversation that's about to happen would be much better to have once Kun is inside his apartment, so he swings the door wide open and steps aside to let Kun in. "So Mrs. Qian is your mom?" How on earth did that evil lady manage to have such a good looking son? It doesn't add up.

Kun lets out a chuckle. "God, no. I would hate myself if I was her legitimate child. She's my step-mom." He explains, walking a little further into the apartment before placing his toolbox on the floor and turning to look at Johnny. "She took my dad's last name and used the 'new mom' status to bully me into becoming this building's handyman because she's too lazy and money hungry to pay for an actual one and-" Kun stops himself and looks away sheepishly. "Sorry. I just went on a little rant there."

Johnny shakes his head. This gorgeous human can complain about anything he wants, Johnny is all ears. "No, don't worry. It's kinda shitty she's like that. Pulling a Mr. Krabs." He says before his brain catches up to him and he clamps his mouth shut, internally mortified that he just compared this guy's step-mom to a goddamn cartoon character.

Kun snorts, and Johnny feels a little better with the bright smile that follows. "That's a way to put it. Yeah, she's awful." He looks back into Johnny's apartment. "You said your A/C hasn't been working?"

Johnny nods but then realizes that Kun isn't looking at him at that moment. "Yeah, about two weeks ago it made a lot of clanking noises and then stopped working in the middle of the night. It's the part that's on the side of the building." 

Kun picks the toolbox back up. "I see." He looks back at Johnny. "Do you mind…"

Johnny shakes his head and motions for Kun to walk further into the apartment. Kun, clearly knowing the floorplan, walks straight to the window where Johnny had been hanging out of the previous day and opens it all the way.

"Why's there a screwdriver here-" Kun starts, and Johnny's eyes open like plates before he rushes over and tries to snatch it out of Kun's hand.

"It's nothing, don't worry about that-" He says panickedly, not wanting Kun to know about his failed handyman stunt that was luckily stopped by Taeyong.

Kun doesn't let him get away with it so easily, moving the screwdriver out of the way so Johnny can't reach it. "Did you try to fix it yourself-"

"What? No!" Johnny exclaims, like the liar he is, before trying to snatch the thing out of Kun's hand again. Kun is smiling in a teasing way, clearly not believing Johnny. The smile nearly throws Johnny off his axis.

Kun holds the screwdriver over his head, and Johnny sees it as an opportunity to snatch it by using his height advantage. He gets even closer and finally takes a hold of the thing, but Kun tries to push him away by placing a hand on Johnny's chest and-

Johnny realizes he's not wearing a shirt.

He freezes, and it doesn't go unnoticed by Kun, who quickly retrieves his hand and chuckles awkwardly. "Ah, sorry about that." He hands the screwdriver over to Johnny and avoids looking at him as he scratches his arm. "I'll just-" He points at the A/C and turns away, cheeks noticeably reddening.

"Y-yeah." Johnny stutters out, genuinely wanting to bolt right out of his apartment. He leaves Kun be and turns away, nearly power-walking into his room and closing the door gently behind him, just to not let Kun know that he is damn near losing it.

He did not expect the handyman to be such a good looking guy. He expected an old, balding man to come in and fix his A/C and try to charge him extra, even though according to Taeyong, the handyman service is covered by his rent payments. Johnny walks over to his nightstand and checks the alarms he had set the previous night. The first one is supposed to ring in twenty minutes. Johnny turns all of them off.

So. A hot guy is in his living room, fixing his A/C. Johnny has to pinch himself to see if he's not dreaming and imagining a real hottie working with a bunch of tools in his living room, and the bolt of pain that shoots up his arm is confirmation enough that yes, Kun is very much real.

Very much real and accidentally touched Johnny's pec.

He looks down at himself and grimaces. He must look like an actual mess, with his hair like a bird's nest and his eyes puffy from sleep. At least he knows his body is not that bad to look at, but- oh fuck, the body odor, he's sweaty from sleeping with no A/C and probably smells like a petting zoo.

He wants to jump right out the window out of pure embarrassment.

He quickly tries to make himself look a little more presentable by putting on some deodorant, he hates being stinky, it's one of his biggest pet peeves. Being funny and smelling good are two things he takes pride in, and then putting on the first shirt he finds inside his drawers.

Even if Kun is nice and hot and has been treating Johnny casually rather than cold and all professional-like, Johnny suspects it's because they both seem to be around the same age and it's more comfortable to act normally rather than call another twenty-something-year-old 'sir' (and also maybe because if you see someone looking like a hot mess just like Johnny did when he opened the door, all respect would fly out the window), he barely knows Kun and Johnny isn't that much of an idiot to leave a complete stranger unsupervised inside his home, so he walks out of his room after leaving the screwdriver on his nightstand and taking his phone with him.

Kun has already taken apart some parts of the A/C, gently placing them on Johnny's floor before jumping back out on the ledge the A/C stands on and going for another of the pieces. He has a safety rope tied around his waist and hooked to a metal hook on the outside of the window frame, clearly made for safety measures for whoever has to walk on the ledge. Johnny feels a little silly for the stunt he pulled, he clearly wasn't prepared for fixing jack shit the same way Kun is.

Once Kun is back inside and neatly places another metal piece on the floor next to the previous ones, Johnny decides to approach him. "Hey, uh, do you need any help? Want me to bring you anything?"

Kun re-accommodates the pieces on the floor. "I'm all good, I probably only need a cloth to wipe these things do-" He stops talking once his eyes fall on Johnny, and Johnny, clearly confused by the reaction, frowns at Kun and tries to figure out what's he staring at. His eyes travel downwards and onto the design of his shirt.

Fuck.

Johnny is mortified as he stares at the ratty white t-shirt with the design of a cartoonish-ly curvy woman in a bikini printed on the front of the shirt, making it look as if those were Johnny's curves. He internally curses himself for even buying the damn thing back on a beach trip he had with a group of college friends, many years ago.

He's about to bolt back into his room and die from embarrassment when suddenly Kun begins laughing, just straight-up cackling at the sight of Johnny's tacky shirt.

It takes him by surprise, but it also leaves Johnny rooted to the spot as he gets to listen to the single most attractive laugh on the planet. Kun is the type of person that throws his head back in laughter, one hand covering his mouth to not be indecent but laughs being loud and joyful. His shoulders shake with the force of it, and he has to turn away from Johnny for a bit to regain his composure and calm down a little. One of his hands’ waves at Johnny as a way to excuse himself or something.

“Oh god, I’m so sorry for laughing, I just-“ he giggles to himself before turning back to look at Johnny. His eyes are bright as he speaks, “I wasn’t expecting that. Very fashionable item of clothing.” He teases, but there’s no malice behind it.

Johnny is somewhat glad his clownery can amuse the hot handyman like this. He chuckles a little too. “It’s okay. I kinda just grabbed the first thing I found.”

“Looks good.” Kun shrugs, smiling. Soon after, he gets back to work.

Johnny spends the whole time Kun works on the A/C in the kitchen, taking peeks into the living room every once in a while to see what Kun is doing and then immediately spamming Taeyong with texts, all of them being along the lines of ‘I’m so fucking dumb oh my god’ and ‘the handyman is so hot I think I’m dying’ and any other variation or a thirst text, with some cutesy messages about ‘wanting Kun’s hand in marriage’ in between. He is sure Taeyong will kill him for the spam and then congratulate him on his new crush right after.

Kun asks for a disposable rag to clean the different pieces and then explains that most of the A/C units in the building are older than time itself and have had little to no maintenance over the years and then makes a joke about how it’s truly amazing that such prehistoric A/C’s have been able to function on this day and age that has Johnny completely smitten at the terrible humor the man has.

It takes about two hours, which the majority of Johnny spends ogling at the toned back and strong muscles that can be seen through Kun’s shirt, but Kun finally puts the whole unit back together right as Johnny’s morning coffee finishes brewing. Kun turns on the central A/C and waits for it to get going, and once the cold air comes out with no further problems, he packs up his tools and closes the windows in the living room.

“So, good news,” he announces, closing his toolbox and turning to Johnny. “Nothing was truly broken inside and you won’t require new pieces to fix it! The reason why it stopped working was because one of the sides was unscrewed and opened, so a squirrel got inside.”

Johnny pales at the words. “Is- is the squirrel dead-“

Kun shakes his head, waving a hand to dismiss whatever is going on inside Johnny’s head. “No, no, don’t worry, there was no squirrel inside. But most of its food was.” Kun takes the rag Johnny gave him from beside the toolbox, wrapped as a makeshift pouch and dirty as fuck. The pouch shakes and the nuts clink together. “There weren’t many inside the unit, but most of them were stuck between the fans, so I get why the whole thing stopped working.”

Sighing in relief, Johnny runs a hand through his hair. He was nearly sure he would have to spend a shit load of money on the new pieces. The reassuring smile Kun gives him is nearly blinding. “Oh fuck, that’s great. I thought I would have to buy a whole new A/C at this point.”

“Nah, it may be old but it still holds on and works perfectly fine.”

“How much do I owe you?” Johnny asks. He knows that even if the landlady is supposed to offer the service, the work put into the whole thing deserves monetary compensation. He’s about to walk back to his room to grab his wallet when Kun stops him with a gentle hand on his arm.

“You don’t owe me anything, Johnny. Tenant policy states that the rent covers the fixing of objects and utilities that already came with the apartment.” Kun explains, and Johnny notices that he lets his hand linger on his arm before letting it drop by his side. Johnny is about to combust. “You would have to pay me if what I’m fixing is something you bought and brought into the apartment, but that’s not the case here.”

“Ohhh.” Johnny really should’ve read that whole contract before signing. Apparently, everyone but him knows what the contract covers and how it works.

Kun nods, amused by Johnny’s reaction. Johnny feels himself blush the same shade as a cherry.

“Oh, before I forget!” Kun says suddenly, snapping his fingers and startling Johnny a little. He wipes his hand on the front of his jeans,- Johnny feels like a sinner for letting his eyes travel down to take a look at Kun’s legs, which are very much toned if the way his jeans hug his thighs is anything to go by,- and then pulls his phone out of his pocket, unlocking the screen and opening the contacts app. “My step-mom is honestly a pain to contact so I’d rather give you my number, just in case.”

Johnny is grateful at the confirmation that calling Mrs. Qian is indeed a waste of time since she’s always either out of the country or intentionally ignoring her tenants until it’s time to pay rent. The fact that her step-son knows how terrible the lady is and doesn’t side with her makes Johnny a little more lovestruck than before. Kun gives Johnny his phone so he can enter his contact, and then he sends a text so Johnny can save Kun’s number in his phone. Johnny’s delusional ass can already hear wedding bells as the notification makes his phone buzz.

“Call me if you need anything, it’ll be much easier.” Kun smiles up at Johnny, and there’s something about his smile that has Johnny thinking there’s probably something more to that statement. Whatever Kun tries to hint completely flies over Johnny’s head, though, mainly because there is no denser person on this earth than Johnny Suh.

Johnny walks Kun to the door and waves goodbye at him, unable to stop himself from letting his eyes fall on Kun’s retreating figure. God, he even has a great ass. Johnny thinks he might be in love. 

He walks back inside and sighs as the room starts to get cooler, the stuffy warm air no longer one of Johnny’s worries. He looks back down at his shirt and laughs to himself. Maybe being a complete mess of a human being might not be so bad after all.

His phone starts ringing and he happily answers it as he sees Taeyong’s contact lighting up the screen.

“Yongie, guess what happened-“

“Why,” Taeyong says, tone annoyed and sleepy. Johnny can’t stop smiling, “did you feel the need to spam me at ass o’clock in the morning.”

“I’m in love with the handyman. That’s the gist of it.” Johnny explains as if his statement makes any sense at all. It really doesn’t, and he’s pretty sure Taeyong hasn’t even read his messages yet, so he goes into an extensive and dramatic retelling of everything that happened since he woke up in the morning, and how close he was to breaking down over how extremely handsome Kun is. He’s well aware that Taeyong falls right back asleep at some point during the phone call if the soft snores are anything to go by, but he still yaps away, because he needs to talk about it some way or another. Johnny has a fixed A/C and a crush on the handyman.

He is a cooled down and happy man.

~~~~~~~

The second time Johnny meets Kun is nearly four months after the first time, and he manages to make a complete fool of himself in front of him.

Taeyong's date with the 2000's punk rocker guy turned into something serious, and they officially started dating and being disgustingly cute together. This, of course, meant that Taeyong wanted the best friend seal of approval on his new boyfriend, and Johnny was too much of a sucker to say no to a pouty Taeyong, so he ended up third-wheeling one of their dates.

To be fair, Taeyong did say it would make him tremendously happy if his best friend and his boyfriend got along and became friends, but what he didn’t expect was for Johnny and Yuta to click so well they acted like life long friends twenty minutes into the date. Yuta was a delight to be around, loud and funny in a way that complimented Taeyong rather than annoys him or dims him down. Johnny was immediately charmed by his bright smile and colorful hair, and so they hit it off rather quickly.

Yuta also learned pretty early on about Johnny’s Great Breakdown over the hot handyman that fixed his A/C unit, since Taeyong couldn’t help himself and spilled the beans, but the teasing was lighthearted and the couple couldn’t joke around a lot about it without Johnny throwing in his own comment about how gross the two of them were together and making them blush. It was only fair.

So, Yuta now being pretty much the love of Taeyong’s life and Johnny’s new bestie decides to invite himself over to Johnny’s apartment using the excuse of ‘having to practice and try to make new drinks for his bar’s menu’ as a way of hiding his sulking over Taeyong being out of town for his job. Johnny is well aware of the reason behind the visit, but Yuta, of course, tries to play it off as something actually work-related once Johnny opens the door to find Yuta carrying a crate filled with all kinds of bottles in different stages of fullness.

“Jesus Christ,” Johnny mutters as he pushes the door open to let Yuta inside. The bottles in the crate clink around as Yuta waddles into the living room and gently drops the crate on the floor.

“You’re not religious,” Yuta states, turning to look at Johnny while stretching his arms over his head, trying to get his back to crack. Johnny rolls his eyes and closes the door, the lock clicking back into place softly.

“Well, I might as well be. It looks like you’re trying to get me to meet god rather quickly with all that alcohol.”

Yuta laughs, bright and loud, before looking down at the crate. “Come on, it’s not even that much alcohol. These are mostly mixers and liquor, I won’t get you shitfaced, big guy.” He then grins, clearly up to no good. “Now, would you be a dear and help me carry this crate to your kitchen? I wanna time how long it takes me to make a Cosmopolitan.”

In all honesty, Johnny had never seen a bartender work up close, since whenever he went to a club the lights would be very dim and either a pink or blue hue, and the music would be so loud it distracted him easily. He was never one to go to bars, he preferred dancing and jumping around with strangers rather than having to sit at a booth drinking beer with friends. He would usually leave the friendly drinking parties for the hangouts at someone’s house, where he actually could talk to his friends and be as loud as he wanted without having to worry about disturbing other patrons.

Yuta works quickly and efficiently, making drink after drink and even getting Johnny to film the process for him to post on social media eventually. Johnny doesn’t have that many clear glasses, so the process ends up being a ‘serve and drink’ kind of deal, where they share each of Yuta’s creations before Yuta washes the glass and reuses it to try another drink.

By the twentieth cocktail, along with a couple of shots, Yuta starts crying over how much he loves Taeyong and how happy the other makes him, resulting in a break from drink making and a lot of wailing. Johnny, who is not that well off but at least didn’t drink the random shots in between cocktails, has half a mind to drag Yuta off to the sofa to avoid any spillage or broken bottles.

“Johnny, Johnny he’s so beautiful, have you seen him? He has a nice face and lips that go like-“ Yuta makes a hand motion that looks like he’s throwing shaky gang signs more than anything, so Johnny has to swat his hands away to avoid getting poked in the eye as he lays Yuta on his sofa.

“Shit man, I mean, I sure do hope I’ve seen him. I’ve known him for years.” He responds, half-jokingly but also half not so jokingly. Has he seen Taeyong? He knows his best friend is very pretty but Yuta is making him question if he’s truly seen Taeyong. Maybe Yuta is just very much in love. That must be it.

Yuta’s very much delirious state has him waxing poetry about how cute Taeyong’s smile is, and Johnny, like a good friend, listens to the best of his ability. He is well aware the hangover next morning is going to be killer, but at least he won’t be the only fool that wakes up with a murderous migraine and crusty eye boogers, so the thought has him feeling a little better about the situation.

He thinks back to the disastrous state his kitchen is in. Yuta was careful about keeping the spillages to a bare minimum, but of course, after the first ten drinks and shots, his aim began to falter, and no matter how much training he has under his belt, a drunk man’s hand will always be shaky. Knowing himself, he is damn sure that tomorrow’s Johnny wouldn’t even step foot inside the kitchen from how shitty he’ll be feeling, so he decides that the best course of action would be to clean up today and worry about minor clean up tomorrow.

The array of bottles on the counter stare back at him with labels in different languages and words he can’t even pronounce, most of them significantly emptier than when they first came in. He has a mildly hard time matching the bottle caps to their bottles, but even while drunk he keeps his little burst of stubbornness and manages to match them all up in under ten minutes. He smiles to himself. This has to be a personal accomplishment or something.

Right as he grabs the last uncapped bottle, he realizes that there is no bottle cap in sight. He frowns, looking around the counter and behind the other bottles. Odd. He takes a peek inside Yuta’s crate, but it’s only filled with the three bottles he decided to not open that night and a few lemons.

Johnny places the bottle back on the counter and crouches down. It might’ve fallen to the floor, or maybe rolled off the counter. The alcohol in his tummy slushes around as he waddles around the kitchen floor, getting on his hands and knees to look under the stove and fridge, but there’s only dust and one or two spiders under them, so he quickly gets up from the floor, head spinning, and makes a mental note to clean under his furniture and kitchen a little more often.

He scratches his head. Leaving the bottle uncapped is not an option. The cap has to be somewhere in his kitchen because he clearly remembers Yuta bringing the crate inside and the bottles clinking between them, but not spilling, so maybe the cap could be inside Yuta’s pocket of something, he just needs to-

The soapy water inside the sink makes him stop dead in his tracks. He doesn’t remember if Yuta filled the sink with water to clean up their glasses faster, so he walks over and pulls the little plug to let the water drain. It doesn’t do much, since the water stays there, and Johnny drunkenly glares at the plug in his hand. Maybe one of the lemon peels got stuck in the pipe and that’s why the water won’t go down. Johnny places the plug beside the sink and aims for the garbage disposal button, completely missing it on his first try due to his slightly blurry vision. He slowly moves away from the sink as the machine whirrs to life, but a series of clanking noises coming from the sink pipe make it abruptly stop. 

Johnny frowns. He moves closer to the button and presses it again, but the garbage disposal just starts making the weird clanking noises again. He gets progressively more annoyed as he starts frantically pressing the button, and then his drunk brain catches up to the situation and his hand freezes mid-air, and realization dawns on him.

Fuck. The missing bottle cap.

Both of his hands fly to his hair as he frantically looks around, slowly but surely losing his shit. His dumb ass really tried to get the metal cap to pass through his shitty garbage disposal and probably got it stuck in it, and now his sink is clogged and he won’t be able to do the dishes until he gets it fixed.

He thinks about fixing it himself, but quickly shuts down the idea when he realizes that he doesn’t even have the tools to fix it or the experience of how a goddamn garbage disposal works.

“Fuck!” He exclaims, earning a loud snort from the drunk bartender on his couch. He nearly forgot Yuta was still in his apartment since he has been suspiciously quiet while Johnny was fussing around in the kitchen.

“Fuck!” Yuta cheerily parrots, before bursting into a laughing fit very similar to a hyena’s yell. Johnny backs away from the kitchen just to avoid fucking something up again. He looks at Yuta with wide, panicky eyes, and feels his eyes water slightly.

“Yuta, oh my god, I think I just broke the sink, fuck, how do I even fix it?” His voice steadily rises in volume while his words slur slightly from all the alcohol in his system.

Yuta opens one eye to look at him, but he probably can’t even see Johnny properly, if his incessant giggling and dazed out expression is anything to go by. Johnny starts pacing in front of the couch,- or at least, that’s what he thinks he’s doing, but he probably isn’t even walking straight,- while Yuta laughs and swats a hand at him.

“Holy shit, you broke it!” He loudly says, before laughing to himself once more.

Johnny is pretty damn close to crying, his irrational brain telling him that if he doesn’t fix his garbage disposal right this second his mean landlady will come and try to k- wait.

Landlady. The landlady has a son,- step-son, his mind supplies. He nods to himself. The stepson is a handyman. His name is Kun and he is the most attractive man Johnny has ever seen. Kun can fix things and has a toolbox. Johnny has Kun’s number in his phone.

God, he truly is a genius.

Johnny aggressively pats down his pockets in search of his phone and then fumbles to unlock the screen and look for his contacts. The names all look a bit blurry, but he does his best to find the contact and make sure he presses the call button. Right as he takes the phone to his ear and uses his other hand to wipe his eyes a little, Yuta halts his giggling to look up at him curiously.

“Who’re you calling, big guy?” He doesn’t even let Johnny answer as he excitedly asks, “Is it Taeyong?!”

“What? No? I’m calling Kun so he can fix my sink.” He answers, trying his damn hardest to focus on the dial tone on the line.

Yuta softly pouts, clearly upset that the love of his life is not being called right now so he can say hi, but then his brain starts working and the gears start turning, and his pout slowly morphs into a grin as Kun picks up the phone. “Oh! Kun the hot handyman-“

“Hello?”

Kun’s voice feels like a breath of fresh air to Johnny, and he can feel himself sobering up in the slightest thanks to it.

“Tell him I say hi-“

“Hey, Kun, please help me.” Johnny rushes in, trying to drown out the sound of Yuta’s greeting and unnecessary comments and annoying kissy noises to tease Johnny. “I got drunk and a bottle cap got stuck in my sink but I didn’t know so I started the garbage disposal a bunch of times and then it got stuck so now my sink is clogged and I don’t know what to do because I can’t do my dishes with a clogged sink and I-“

“Johnny,” Kun says, voice firm. Johnny immediately shuts up and tries not to hyperventilate. There’s some shifting on the other end of the line, and then a soft sigh. Johnny feels his throat tighten a little. “I need you to calm down a little. Can you tell me what’s wrong with your sink?”

“I clogged the sink with a metal bottle cap and I think I broke the garbage disposal.” He mutters, a little calmer but still pacing in front of the couch. Yuta listens in to the conversation, looking sleepier by the minute.

“Okay. I can fix that, don’t worry.” Kun gently reassures. Johnny sighs in relief. “But Johnny,” Kun continues, making a small pause that makes Johnny’s interest peak, “it’s... nearly three in the morning right now.”

Oh.

“Oh,” Johnny says out loud. He might not be a genius after all.

Kun chuckles softly. “Yeah. Oh.”

Johnny’s panicked brain finally kicks in after two long seconds of awkward silence, apologies tumbling from his mouth, and making his already slurred speech worsen slightly. “Oh my god, I’m sorry, I‘m so sorry! I didn’t even realize what time it was, I’m so dumb, I probably woke you up and you still decided to answer my call, Oh my god-“

“Hey, hey, hey, it’s okay! Don’t worry about it!” Kun tries to reassure him again, but this time Johnny‘s drunk brain has already gone into overdrive, leaving an even drunker Yuta slightly worried over him.

“It’s not okay! I should’ve checked the time before calling you! Fuck I was so worried over the damn sink I completely forgot it’s ass o’clock, I’m sorry Kun-“

“Johnny, don't worry, I said it was okay. I’m coming over, give me like fifteen minutes.” Kun decides before more rustling is heard on the line.

“What? No!” Johnny feels panicky and worked up, like a cat when it bristles and it's hairs stand on end. The more rustling on the other end of the line gives him more time to slowly realize that if Kun does come over, he'll have to witness a very drunk and gross looking Johnny, who reeks of sweat and fruity liquor. In no way or form would that be a formidable situation to be in.

"Johnny, I'm already awake, I might as well fix it for you right now." Kun says, something achingly similar to a set of keys clinking softly in the background. "Besides, I want to check up on you. Just to make sure you're okay." He adds later on when the sound of a door opening and closing muffles his words a little.

Johnny knows there probably isn't anything he can say to stop Kun, especially since he seemingly already got out of his home, but he still tries. "I'm okay! You don't have to come! Please go back to sleep, I'm really sorry for waking you u-" a rather aggressive hiccup makes Johnny stop mid-sentence, and he at least has half a mind to move the phone away from his ear as he is thrown into a coughing fit from the intensity of the hiccup.

After settling down a little, he brings the phone back up to his ear and manages to catch the end of Kun's sentence, "-definitely not that 'okay', Johnny."

"I'm good." He chokes out, dumbly trying to hold in his coughs. Kun snorts at Johnny's clear struggle and promptly hangs up the call after reaffirming that he'll be over soon and that Johnny should try drinking some water in the meantime.

Johnny wants to outright die as the beeping in the other end of the line picks up, signaling the end of the call.

He takes the phone away from his ear and stares at the screen until the numbers and letters that make-up Kun's contact information blur out more than what his already drunken eyesight does. Fuck.

"Is the hot handyman coming over?" Yuta slurs out, from somewhere inside the house that is very much not the couch where Johnny had left him. Johnny turns to look at the empty furniture and then whips his head a tad too fast towards the kitchen, room spinning as his eyes settle on a nearly double Yuta leaning against the kitchen door frame.

"How did you get over there?" Johnny asks, simply because his brain can't really comprehend how in the world a completely smashed Yuta managed to teleport himself all the way to the kitchen. Johnny had been pacing in front of the couch, how did he not notice or hear Yuta getting up and wobbling away?

"Oh, I just wanted another drink." Yuta lifts his hand to proudly show the collectible Cars themed plastic cup in his hold, waving it around a little dangerously but managing not to spill a single drop. "Where did you get these cups? Taeyongie has ones just like them; his are Monsters Inc. themed, though."

Johnny, very much trying to use the question as a distraction from the crushing reality that the man he has the hots for is currently on his way to Johnny's apartment at ass o'clock at night and Johnny is very much not in his five senses, decides to get himself his own drink in one of his Cars cups. "It's 'cause we collected them together a few years ago. They came with the kids' meal at a fast-food restaurant and we bought all of them in under a month."

"Nice, I like them. I only have themed mugs." Yuta says, pouting. He takes another sip from his cup.

Johnny feels the need to ask. "Is there alcohol inside that cup?"

"Nah, just orange juice. There wasn't much left in the carton I brought anyway." And with that he wobbles back to the couch, looking more like a sleepy toddler than a drunk adult with an actual job and a bunch of responsibilities.

Johnny needs a drink. Not in the commonly used sense of the word, since he can still feel the alcohol running through his body and making him sweat like a sinner in church, but a metaphorical drink. A cup of water to help him get through his crisis.

With Yuta in another room, doing god knows what, Johnny has the time and space to finally break down, as one does when things don't work in your favor. He has to hold the kitchen counter to ground himself as he replays the entire conversation he had minutes ago over and over again inside his head.

Curse him for getting so irresponsibly drunk. Damn him for not supervising Yuta correctly, even if he does trust his friend, and not checking the sink beforehand. 

He doesn't want Kun to think badly of him, since their first meeting went terribly and Johnny managed to make a complete clown out of himself in front of the one guy he's ever been madly attracted to at first sight. It's not that Johnny only focuses on appearances, god, he would genuinely be disgusted and ashamed of himself if that were the case, but there was something about Kun that left him completely smitten and swooning like a middle schooler with their first crush after only having met once.

Maybe it was the honey-blond hair. Johnny has always had a thing for blonds, even back in high school his eyes would linger on anyone with a light hair color; there was just something very captivating about it. Or maybe it was his eyes, a deep and rich brown color, that reminded him of some sweet syrup, along with the little moles below his eyebrow that Johnny couldn't stop staring at while Kun explained what was wrong with his A/C. A small voice in his head tells him that it mostly had to do with Kun's voice, and Johnny has to agree. Even after laughing at Johnny, which, in all honesty, was the most attractive laugh Johnny had ever heard, Kun was still very nice to him and tried to make some conversation in that lovely, melodious voice of his. One that was warm and sweet, almost like… like honey.

Kun reminds him of honey.

Johnny groans. Perfect. He's completely delirious now.

He really needs that drink.

Johnny manages to walk over to his cupboards without tripping, and he smiles at the small victory as he takes one of his themed cups and fills it up with ice-cold water, gulping it down and refilling the cup. It helps him feel a little more sober and cool down, but right as he finishes the second cup, Mother Nature comes knocking at his door and he has to drop everything and bolt to the bathroom to avoid doing a drunken oopsie whoopsie in the middle of his goddamn kitchen. He feels like an unsupervised six-foot toddler.

He doesn’t expect to hear the knocking right as he’s washing his hands,- he’s a clean man, this ain’t a dirty household, -and he belatedly realizes that the only other person in his apartment that could open the door and let Kun in is... drunk and bold Yuta.

“Hot handyman! Dude, you’re even more good looking than what Johnny gushed about, he didn’t do you justice!”

_God. Take me with you._

Johnny all but stumbles out of his bathroom to find Kun standing by the entrance rather awkwardly with his toolbox in hand, while Yuta yaps to him about something, Cars cup dangerously close to spilling as he waves it around animatedly.

Kun spots Johnny first and smiles softly at him before raising a hand and doing a cute little wave that has Johnny’s heart doing backflips. “Hi, Johnny.”

Johnny stares for a bit too long before returning the wave, a little lovestruck, and very much smitten by how cute Kun looks in his black sweatpants and light-blue hoodie. “Hi, Kun.”

Yuta snorts loudly. “Ha. Gay.”

Johnny has to resist the urge to smack the drunk out of Yuta’s system. “You’re literally dating my best friend.”

“And yet you’re out-gaying me while still being single. Unbelievable.” Yuta shakes his head and then has to hold onto the nearest surface to not fall face first after the harsh movement. He then takes one last sip of his drink and uses that same hand to turn and point at Kun. “By the way, hot handyman, do you want a drink? I can make literally anything. You can trust me, I’m a bartender.”

Johnny just watches as Kun scans Yuta’s swaying form and tries very hard not to grimace. “Ah, I think I’ll pass. I need to drive back home after this. Thank you for the offer, though.”

Yuta then turns to Johnny and squints before whispering way too loudly, “he’s nice _and_ responsible? Buddy.” And he leaves it at that, walking past Johnny and getting lost somewhere inside Johnny’s room. Johnny only hopes nothing gets broken or puked on.

“Uhm. So that was interesting.” Kun says once Yuta is out of sight. Johnny whips his head around so fast a few spots start dancing in his vision. Kun notices this, of course, and closes the distance between him and Johnny just to put a supporting hand on Johnny’s shoulder and help him balance himself. “You okay?”

“Y-yeah, I’m okay. Yeah.” Johnny can’t help but blush at how close the other is. He knows he’s swaying a little too, and his brain feels like a lagging computer with slow WiFi, but he still has half a mind to apologize for Yuta’s loudmouth behavior. “I’m sorry about him, his boyfriend is out of town so he decided to crash here with a crate of alcohol and made way too many crazy cocktails for only two people.”

Kun, the absolute sweetheart, just shakes his head and smiles up at Johnny. “It’s okay, you’re allowed to drink crazy cocktails with your friend. What I’m worried about is that you two can’t take care of each other while drunk and there was no one here to take care of you two. Did you drink water?”

Johnny scratches the back of his head as he looks away. Maybe he was being a little reckless by getting drunk like that alongside Yuta. “Yeah, I did.”

“Did you go to the bathroom? Are you feeling dizzy?”

His face is probably the same color as a tomato. “I-I did. Just feel a little buzzed right now.”

Kun nods to himself and finally takes a step back, leaving Johnny’s personal space. Johnny doesn’t want to admit it, but he feels a little disappointed. “Okay, that’s good. How about you show me what happened to your sink and then you can take a seat while I work on it?”

Johnny complies, mainly because his brain turns into static as Kun places a gentle hand on the small of his back to help him walk properly and doesn’t remove it until they’re both in the kitchen, standing in front of the sink. Kun places his toolbox on the floor and then moves to press the garbage disposal button, humming and nodding when the machine doesn’t even start-up.

“You said a bottle cap got stuck in your pipe?” He asks.

“Yeah, from that bottle.” Johnny points at the crate filled and surrounded by alcohol bottles. The cap-less liquor bottle stands front and center, right by it, as if mocking Johnny.

“I- wow. Did you guys really drink from all of those bottles?” Kun takes a step closer to the crate and pulls the first bottle his hand lands on out of the crate. “Johnny, most of these bottles are almost empty!”

Oh god, now Kun is gonna think Johnny is an alcoholic or something. He shakes his head violently, waving his hands to dismiss whatever thought is crossing Kun’s head at that moment. “No, no, oh my god! We didn’t drink all of them! Yuta brought the crate and some of the bottles were already halfway or almost done!”

Kun sighs, placing the bottle back in the crate and moving the offending cap-less liquor away from the edge of the counter to avoid any incidents. “Still. You shouldn’t have mixed so many liquors and drinks. It’s not good for you. Gets you drunk faster.”

Well, Johnny really should’ve thought about that one. It didn’t cross his mind at all, and any rational thought flew out the window by the fifth cocktail and crazy story from Yuta. “Yeah, I guess you’re right… I was blindly trusting the bartender.”

“Bartenders aren’t even supposed to drink on the job. They can have two to three drinks, at most. I’m surprised your friend didn’t break a bottle.” Kun still has that little disappointed pout on his lips, and Johnny feels like a clown. He knows Kun isn’t trying to crush his fun or make him feel bad, he’s just worried about Johnny, which makes him feel even worse. This whole meeting could’ve been avoided if Johnny had just been a little more responsible.

And yet, he doesn’t regret it much, since he gets to see Kun again, even if it’s over a clogged sink and a drunk panicked phone call at three in the morning.

Kun starts by getting comfortable on the floor and opening the cabinets under the sink. He asks Johnny to bring him a bucket and gives him the task of holding a flashlight to illuminate the pipes and help Kun work faster. Kun makes Johnny sit on a chair instead of the floor, and he also gives him another cup of water before fully getting to work (it’s the same cup Johnny had previously used to drink water. Kun doesn’t comment on the design, but Johnny can see him smiling at the little face of Lightning McQueen and the Piston Cup on the side of the cup. Johnny wants to both coo at him and also die on the spot from embarrassment).

Johnny is pretty damn close to believing Kun is a wizard of some kind, especially when it comes to handyman things and physical work. At one point he takes off his hoodie, not wanting to get it dirty, and Johnny, -horny, drunk ape brain Johnny -gets to feast on the sight of Kun’s arms flexing as he uses the wrench and loosens the bolt holding the old pipes together. He works quickly and efficiently, getting the metal cap unstuck from between the disposal’s blades, and unclogging the sink. Johnny’s first guess of what could possibly be inside his pipes was very much correct; some half-crushed lemon peels fall into the bucket, along with the soapy water and a few of the mint leaves Yuta used for garnish.

Kun holds the bottle cap triumphantly between some pliers and smiles up to Johnny before letting out a soft “Bingo!” with that pretty voice of his.

Johnny stares at him like a lovesick idiot and smiles back.

Putting the garbage disposal and the sink pipes back together ends up being a rather quick feat, and soon enough Kun is putting his tools away and standing up to check if everything is working correctly, pressing the button to let the disposal run. It whirrs to life and makes the same amount of noise it usually does, so Kun smiles to himself and nods in satisfaction. Johnny can’t take his eyes off him.

Kun takes care of the cleanup and disposes of the water and lemon peels, not letting Johnny even lift a finger. Johnny complains about it, saying that it's fine, that he's not drunk at all, just feeling a little tipsy, but Kun just fondly rolls his eyes at him and leaves him sitting on the chair, along with yet another cup of water.

He doesn't bother to put his hoodie back on after washing his hands, just ties it around his waist, and helps himself to some cold water from one of Johnny's themed cups, finding them in the cupboard with Johnny's guidance. Johnny feels a little silly, just staring at Kun like this. He likes the fact that Kun doesn't act all proper and professional around him, just acts as if they're familiar with each other and have been for ages, even if it's only their second time meeting. Kun leans against the counter as he drinks, eyes trained on his phone screen, scrolling through social media. His shirt is clearly for sleeping, an old nearly peeled off design of some underground band plastered on the front of the shirt, the thing looking oversized and even a little discolored from all the washing. Still, Johnny thinks Kun looks absolutely stunning, especially in such a casual setting. He looks away for a little to avoid being caught staring, but his eyes always end up on Kun, anyway.

Kun locks his phone after finishing his cup of water, placing it next to the sink. "I should probably go now."

_No, please stay. Stay the night, if you want,_ is what Johnny wants to say, but it's cheesy and dumb and he has no right to be all bold when he knows Kun just came here to check up on his drunk ass and fix the sink, which he would've ended up doing anyway, only at a different time of the day. They don't even know each other properly; It's been months since their first meeting. "I'll walk you to the door."

Johnny fails to notice the small disappointed frown that overtakes Kun's face, one that he quickly conceals once they're both standing in front of the door, Kun with his toolbox in hand and Johnny with the Cars cup in his.

"Thank you so much, Kun, you really didn't have to come all the way over here to help me and handle my drunk ass, but you did, and well- I'm really sorry for waking you up and annoying you like that," Johnny says sincerely, trying to avoid looking at Kun's eyes. He doesn't want his lovey-dovey lagging brain to lose its train of thought and make him ogle at Kun like some dumbass. He has to keep it together. "Thank you, really."

Yet Johnny is a weak man, and he ends up looking at Kun anyway after he hears a soft huff. Kun gives him a small smile, one of the corners of his mouth raising a little more than the other. "Like I said, it's okay. I wanted to come and check up on you, and I'm glad I did. It's a good thing neither of you got hurt."

"Yeah."

"You have my number, call me if you need me. I'm serious. I don't mind answering your calls."

Johnny is rendered speechless by this. Does Kun mean it in the sense Johnny wants it to mean? Can Johnny really use that as an invitation, or does it mean something completely professional? It doesn’t feel like it, not really, but Johnny isn’t bold or brave enough to take that chance. Kun’s gaze is hard to read, and Johnny has never been one to understand properly what is left unspoken.

He nods softly, and things are left at that.

Kun leaves with a small smile and a wave, the exact way he arrived, and Johnny watches him walk down the hallway until he disappears around the corner. He gently closes the door and rests his forehead against it.

He truly is an idiot.

Back inside his room, he finds Yuta sprawled like a starfish on his bed, half-asleep. Yuta opens one eye when he hears Johnny walk in.

“Did he leave?”

“Yeah.”

“Ya don’t sound very happy ‘bout it, big guy.” Yuta mumbles, scooting over to leave some space for Johnny to lay down. Johnny doesn’t mind sharing the bed at this point.

“I’m dumb.” He says, sitting on the edge of the bed before laying down halfway across it. He doesn’t even bother changing into something more comfortable or situating properly on the mattress.

“I’m sure you’re not, you just prolly’ did something dumb. Happens.” Yuta is on the brink of sleep, so Johnny leaves him be and doesn’t say anything else.

Before he can overthink himself and put himself down for not being brave enough to ask Kun to stay, he closes his eyes and tries to fall asleep, even if he can still feel his head buzzing from the last of the alcohol in his system. Worrying about his social skills and stupidity when it comes to pretty blond guys is something for Tomorrow's Johnny. It'll be his problem to deal with, along with a killer hangover.

Johnny doesn't end up sleeping much, anyway.

~~~~~~~

Johnny actually prepares for the next time he sees Kun. Third time's a charm, right?

He decides to call Kun under the excuse that he needs help assembling some furniture, a new TV stand since the old one was left behind by the previous renter of the apartment and the wood was ugly and creaky anyways. He buys the set and has it delivered to his place before dialing Kun's number, and since he still is very much a coward, he makes the call with both Yuta and Taeyong present, sitting on his couch and munching on pizza, Johnny's treat.

"That was so painful to watch," Yuta comments once Johnny hangs up, a goofy smile plastered on his face as Kun confirms that he'll be over the next day, sometime after midday.

Taeyong, ever the good friend, smacks Yuta on the back, nearly making his boyfriend choke around a bite of pizza. "Don't be mean, he's doing his best."

"I know," Yuta chokes out, "doesn't make it any less awkward."

Taeyong ignores him in favor of turning to look at Johnny and asks, "So. What's your plan?"

Johnny plays with one of the corners of his phone cover, trying to avoid Taeyong's curious eyes. "I needed an excuse to see him, and honestly this was the only thing I could come up with."

"You just wanna see him again?"

"I want to ask him on a date." Johnny finally confesses. It feels weird to say out loud, but it's good. He feels like he's manifesting it or something. "If he's here and we get to talk, I'll be more comfortable and not chicken out of asking him to go out with me."

"There are so many flaws in that plan, big guy," Yuta says, unhelpfully. Taeyong glares at his boyfriend, making the other look away and quietly eat his pizza.

"Well, I think it's a good plan. Communication is very important, and in your case, you need some physical reassurance too. I don't think just texting him will do."

Johnny nods at that, and they drop the topic in favor of talking about Taeyong's impressive killing streak on his favorite video game and Yuta's most recent crazy bartender story. It's a little hard for Johnny to focus on the topics at hand when his head is running a hundred miles per hour, but his friends understand and try to keep him looped into the conversation and distract him to the best of their abilities. Between the pizza and Yuta's hilarious jokes, Johnny soon enough pushes his worries to the backburner and lets himself enjoy his time with friends.

Once he wakes up the next morning, he immediately gets to work, puttering around his apartment and cleaning up any available surface, even if he already is a very clean guy and tries to keep his apartment nice and organized. His cleaning spree helps him calm his nerves a bit, and about an hour before midday, he has already swept and mopped the whole apartment, arranged his living room twice, and left every single corner spotless. His pantry is stuffed with snacks, just in case, and he has a few drinks inside the fridge for later.

He looks at his phone. Kun hasn't texted him or anything, so Johnny bites his lips, deep in thought. He's probably overthinking too much. Kun already confirmed he'll be coming, so Johnny's fears feel a little irrational. He decides to jump in the shower and attempt to wash his worries away.

He checks his phone once more once he hops out of the shower. There are a few notifications; a couple of good luck texts from Yuta and Taeyong that he answers with heart memes and a string of silly emojis, and one particular text from Kun saying that he'll be over in half an hour. Johnny lets out a shaky exhale as he mentally prepares himself for Kun's arrival.

He dresses casually but nicely, not wanting to make it seem like he's trying too hard, but not wanting to look like the ugly ratty man that had sadly been the side of him Kun, unfortunately, got to witness twice already. He combs his hair, puts on a dash of cologne, and even goes as far as dabbing a bit of lip tint on his lips just to make them look a little bit rosier. Once he feels like he looks decent enough, he checks his phone once again.

Twenty minutes until Kun arrives.

He busies himself with opening the box where the furniture parts came in. The thing is heavy as fuck and it takes a lot of space in the middle of his living room, so he has to move some of his furniture around a little. He starts taking some of the pieces out, keeping the bags of screws and bolts on the side so he doesn't lose them so easily.

Right as he struggles to take one of the larger wooden planks out of the box, sudden loud knocking comes from the main entrance and startles the shit out of Johnny, making him drop the whole thing on his foot.

"Fuck!" He yelps, falling backward onto the floor, hands shooting out to attempt steadying himself and avoid banging his head against the coffee table behind him.

The knocking suddenly stops, and Johnny hears his name being called out from the other side of the door.

Not wanting to leave Kun hanging, Johnny scrambles to get up and practically limps the whole way to the front door before unlocking it and swinging it open, somehow feeling completely out of breath.

"Kun, hi." He nearly wheezes out, trying to mask the pain shooting up from his foot when he shifts his weight with a smile that hopefully doesn't give away how much he's hurting.

It doesn't really help. Johnny can see the worry in Kun's eyes. "Hey, are you okay?"

Johnny tries to keep the facade up. "Yeah, I'm good. All good." He tries to move aside to let Kun in, but his foot really does hurt, and he scrunches his face in pain as he takes a step back. "Come in." He says, strained and nearly gritting his teeth together.

Kun, someone who clearly takes no bullshit, walks in and closes the door himself before crouching down in front of Johnny. "Did you drop something on your foot? Let me check."

Johnny, mortified, tries to pull Kun up while backing away from him at the same time. "No need, I'm okay, I swear-"

Kun reaches out and grabs Johnny by the calf, and Johnny immediately stops struggling from both the surprise and the fact that if he keeps wriggling around he'll fall on his ass and that really is not the way he wants things to go. "Let me check," Kun says again, and this time he leaves no room for argument. Not wanting to argue with his crush, Johnny complies, moving his injured foot forward and letting Kun lift his leg to place Johnny's foot on his thigh. Kun gently presses on Johnny's socked foot, starting from his ankle and moving down until Johnny hisses out once his fingers press on the injured area.

He makes a move to take the sock off Johnny's foot, and despite Johnny's protests, he takes it off, an angry red-purple mark that will surely bruise even worse already forming on Johnny's foot. Kun's hand hovers over the injury. "The good thing is that you didn't drop whatever you were carrying on your toes. This is gonna swell up, though."

Johnny's face is on fire, he thinks he could cook an egg on his cheeks from how warm they are. Kun looks up from where he's crouching and Johnny feels like he's damn near having a heart attack from how cute Kun looks. Even in the most awkward of situations, his brain still has time to admire Kun and all his pretty features.

Kun gently places his foot back on the floor and stands up, handing the sock back to Johnny. "Let's get you to the couch, I'll bring you some ice."

Kun wraps an arm around Johnny's waist and supports him as they walk over to the living room, Johnny remaining speechless throughout the whole thing. This is probably the closest he's ever been to Kun,- not taking into consideration the hand on pec accident on their first meeting (it still haunts Johnny's dreams, but it also fuels his not so family-friendly thoughts),- and he tries to get his legs to work and move forward while emergency sirens go off inside his head.

Once on the couch, Kun helps him get comfy and props up his foot, then asking if Johnny has an ice pack or something similar. Johnny tells him it's inside the freezer, and Kun walks over to retrieve it. When Kun is finally out of sight, Johnny resists the urge to outright smack himself in the face. This wasn't the way things were supposed to go, he planned to charm Kun and then ask him out on a date once the TV stand was assembled, that way they would have time to talk and get to know each other a little but be able to work on the furniture if things got awkward or something, as a way to distract themselves if things went bad.

It seems like life is out to get him or something.

Kun returns with the ice pack in hand, squishing it around to get it to unfreeze a little and mold to the shape of Johnny's foot better. He sits by the end of the couch, holds his hand out for Johnny to give him the sock (Johnny is going to lose it. When will the embarrassment end?) and wraps it around the ice pack so the cold doesn't hurt Johnny's skin but still helps with the swelling.

"This is honestly going to be a nasty bruise. Can you move your toes?" Kun asks, and Johnny obediently wiggles his toes, only feeling a little bit of discomfort once he moves them. "Well, at least your mobility seems fine." Kun comments.

Johnny nods. He still doesn't know what to say. He's just very much upset that things aren't going his way.

Kun,- lovely, thoughtful, angel-walking-on-earth Kun-, notices the drop in Johnny's mood and decides to drive the conversation away from Johnny's injury. He looks over at the pile of boards and screws on the floor next to the large box. "Where did you buy your TV stand? The ones where I work don't look as massive as that one."

Johnny appreciates the change of topic. "I kinda bought it online, to be honest. They have a catalog with the measurements for each piece of furniture and they deliver them to your home, so it's easier to buy them. It's where I bought my dresser and bed frame from."

"Oh, that's kinda cool. Seems like there are more options."

"Where do you work?" Johnny asks, curiosity getting the best of him.

Kun smiles. "Hardware store, the one with the annoyingly bright orange sign. Can't really miss it."

"Oh, I love that place! It was the only store in the entire city that had the LED lights I wanted for my room. They're way too expensive to order online."

"The ones that connect to bluetooth and change colors according to the song?" Kun asks, and Johnny nods, smiling. "Those always get sold out super quickly, I'm surprised you managed to get them."

Johnny shrugs. He'd always liked the idea of having fun colors inside his room, and it always made things fun and interesting. Taeyong loved to use them every time he slept over because they were perfect for taking selfies, according to him. "I think I got lucky that day. Some guy was checking out the last two boxes of them and I saw two girls walking towards the display, so I quickly snatched one of the boxes for myself and bolted to the register."

Kun laughs, eyes turning into cute little crescents. "Johnny I'm sure they wouldn't have taken the box out of your hands."

"Who knows? People go absolutely ham during Black Friday sales and things like that. If they really wanted the lights they would've probably tried to bribe me into giving them away." Johnny defends, knowing damn well that he is too nice and a big sucker and that people can easily get him to agree with a 'pretty please?' and puppy dog eyes. It always works with Taeyong, and now with Yuta too, sadly.

Kun shakes his head but smiles at him rather fondly, and Johnny thinks he'll never get tired of seeing the two dimples that form on Kun's soft-looking cheeks. He wants to poke the dimples and kiss his cheeks, but he knows he needs to make a move and ask for a date first before even thinking about doing any of that.

That is if Kun agrees to go on a date with him and doesn't turn him down.

Great, more things to worry over.

Because Johnny's foot is injured and Kun won't let him get up or move, claiming that he needs to keep the ice pack on it for a while longer, he has to stay on the couch as Kun assembles the TV stand by himself, not wanting Johnny to force himself or have to build it by himself later. He dismisses Johnny's offers for help even with the smaller parts and explains that he has to do this kind of thing all the time since it's a requirement for his job and sometimes people pay extra for someone to go to their homes and assemble the furniture for them.

"In some cases, I get it, because I've had to help elderly couples set up a new vanity or housewives assemble the dinner table and each of the chairs, but the people that simply don't want to do the work of putting together a nightstand? I get that their laziness puts money into my paycheck, but they're the meanest out of the bunch. Always think the workers are just an extension of the furniture or something." He complains, skillfully screwing two of the wooden boards together and putting them to the side in favor of grabbing one of the bigger planks and working on it next. Johnny is completely awestruck at the fast pace Kun works in.

"Is that why your step-mom bullied you into becoming a handyman? Because she knows you know how to fix things and work where tools are accessible?"

Kun nods, using the screwdriver to point at Johnny. "Bingo. When she learned that I was good at fixing shit, she started seeing me less like a step-son and more like free work."

Johnny is scandalized by this. "She doesn't pay you?!"

Kun bites the inside of his cheek and nods but then shakes his head. "Something like that? She doesn't give me my share of the money but takes it from my rent because I live in the other building she owns. So the rent is super cheap but my pride is somewhat hurt."

"God, that sucks."

Kun sighs. "Yeah. I don't really mind being a handyman, and I know if I break off that deal with her, this whole building would fall apart and my rent would go up, so yeah. You win some you lose some."

Talking to Kun is extremely entertaining. He doesn't mind sharing things about himself, doesn't engage in dumb conversation like 'how's the weather?' or anything of the sort, he just goes straight to the good stuff. They end up sharing childhood stories, embarrassing things that have happened to them, and talk about anything and everything that comes to mind. Johnny learns that Kun is only a year younger than him, that he prefers whiskey over any beer or wine, that he actually loves karaoke nights and always loses in arcade games. Kun shares things about himself so animatedly, gesturing wildly with the screwdriver in hand to make a point, and he listens to Johnny talk with just as much attention. He nods and hums, cracks a joke or two, and laughs at Johnny's own lame puns like they're the funniest thing in the universe.

Johnny thinks what he's feeling has moved past the 'crush' phase. The more he gets to know about Kun, hears him talk and laugh and sees him be himself, the more infatuated Johnny becomes. He tries to say them, to let the words slip past his mouth, but no matter how many times he tries, he just ends up opening and closing his mouth like a fish and not making a single sound, not asking the very important question that was the main reason for Kun's visit, other than the one he told Kun.

He's too scared of rejection, feels like he's being too bold, like jumping such a long distance without having enough solid footing to land on.

In the end, Johnny chickens out, not feeling brave enough to pop the question and ask Kun to go on a date with him. He feels disappointed in himself, because he knows there really aren't many other excuses he can make up to see Kun again, and his apartment doesn't have any more things to fix.

He tries not to let it show, though. He smiles and makes up a silly cheer once Kun finishes assembling the TV stand and pushes it against the wall, even going as far as setting up the TV on it and the speakers and DVD player system, connecting all of them to the electricity outlet and leaving everything up and running.

"You really didn't have to do all that," Johnny says, getting off the couch once the ice pack has melted on his foot and soaked his sock completely.

Kun shakes his head, fixing the TV in place before taking a step back to admire his work. "It's no problem, I actually find it entertaining to assemble things like this." He turns back to look at Johnny, his smile immediately slipping into a frown. "Hey, where are you going?"

Johnny lifts the ice pack so Kun can see it. "Gonna put these things away."

Kun quickly walks over to him and tries to snatch the ice pack and sock from Johnny's hand, but Johnny pulls a move out of Kun's own book and moves the hand away, keeping it out of reach. Kun, immediately noticing what Johnny is playing at, squints up at him before pulling a move that has Johnny's brain liquefying and splattering all over the floor, metaphorically speaking. Just like the time he did it by accident,- but this time, very much on purpose,- he places a hand right on Johnny's chest and uses the distraction to get closer to Johnny and jump up to reach the things in his hand, quickly snatching them away and laughing at Johnny's shocked expression.

Johnny reacts a tad too late, right when Kun is halfway across the room and nearly at the kitchen. "Hey!"

Kun laughs again, this time poking his head from around the doorframe of the kitchen and sticking his tongue out at Johnny.

Limping all the way to the kitchen, Johnny finally arrives once Kun is walking out of the laundry room attached to the kitchen, after having left Johnny's sock hanging somewhere to dry, Johnny assumes.

"Dirty move," Johnny complains, pouting when Kun grins at him.

"I don't know. Seemed very fair to me." He walks past Johnny and back into the living room, and Johnny has no option but to follow behind.

Once in the living room, Kun's smile falls off his face as he looks around. He plays with the small beaded bracelet wrapped around his wrist. "Well," he says, and suddenly Johnny feels like a rock has settled at the bottom of his stomach. Kun glances over to the brand new TV stand, "It's already set up."

Johnny really doesn't know what to say, so he just hums. Suddenly the air around them turns a bit awkward. Johnny doesn't like it.

Kun finally turns back to Johnny, and his face has a look Johnny can't quite read. "I should get going." His voice is soft, slightly tinged with disappointment.

This is Johnny's last chance. He just has to ask, to get the words out of his mouth. He can even extend their time together if he so much as says the words, invites Kun to stay a little longer, offers him some snacks, a drink, anything!

But he doesn't, just nods and tries to swallow down the sudden knot that forms in his throat. Kun looks just plain disappointed, and Johnny feels like an idiot.

He walks Kun over to the door and opens it to let him out, using the doorframe to lean on and avoid adding weight to his injured foot.

Johnny tries one last time. "Kun," he starts, and Kun turns to look at him, a small glint of hope in his eyes. Johnny's got this, he can do it. "I- uhm." Come on Johnny, speak. "I-I wanted to thank you for coming over and helping me. And for taking care of me again, even if you didn't have to."

Kun gives him a lopsided smile. "It's okay. I had fun."

Johnny nods and tries again. "I had fun too. I like talking to you." Good. Good! A compliment is always good.

Kun smiles brightly at that, looking down at the floor shyly before meeting Johnny's eyes. "I like talking to you too."

"Y-yeah." Johnny can't do it. He's dumb and a coward and his chance slips through his fingers like sand. 

Kun nods and waves goodbye, still smiling as he turns away, and Johnny just watches him leave, feeling like a fool. Kun walks to the end of the hallway, leaving Johnny to turn back and lock himself inside his apartment and probably cry or something, but Kun's voice calling out to him makes Johnny snap his head back to look at him.

"Oh, and Johnny?" Kun has a small smile playing at his lips, barely there but still noticeable. There's a teasing look in his eyes. "Next time you call me, I really hope it's because you're inviting me to have coffee with you, even if I don't mind helping you fix things around your apartment." He finally lets the smile break through as he turns around and walks away, and Johnny is left speechless, for the second time since meeting Kun, in front of his own apartment door.

That definitely meant something. Johnny is not that stupid.

It takes him nearly five minutes to get it together and finally pry himself away from his door, just to close it and lean against it for support. Kun actually wants to go out with him. Great.

The squeal of excitement he lets out is very much inhumane. He doesn't care that he looks like a schoolgirl with a crush.

He quickly takes his phone out of his pocket and types a message, one that he really should've sent months ago, and presses send with a giddy smile on his face.

**Qian Kun** ⭐👨🔧💕

I know this is long overdue but

would you like to go on a date with me?♡

**Author's Note:**

> Lord knows how much i struggled writing this,,,, literally a few hours before the deadline bc apparently i love to live on the edge lmao
> 
> BIG THANKS TO LOU (@sunnyjohnnys on twt) FOR BETAING THIS AND LITERALLY HOLDING MY HAND THRU IT!!!! thank u for being on the same word doc with me at nearly 2am i owe u my life mwah mwah
> 
> i really hope i did this prompt some justice!! find me on twitter at @IsabelArmuelles !!! let's talk!!
> 
> thank u for reading!!!♡♡♡


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